Chapter One #2
“How about Saturday night? Why did you guide her away from Cole?” Something Michael had recounted in his interview.
He furrowed his brow. “Well, I’d observed her…
” He cleared his throat. “I always had the sense she had a crush on Cole. I mean, who wouldn’t?
The guy’s gorgeous, funny, and one of the most down-to-earth people I know.
Everyone loves him because he treats each person equally.
He takes the time to get to know all the actors, extras, and the crew—both production and technical.
He’s just as friendly as he seems to people on the outside. ”
“Yet he’s also in a relationship with two other people.” Mariah tapped her fingers on the desk that separated us from him.
I took the notes. I always took the notes.
Donovan’s gaze narrowed. “I cannot see how this could possibly be your—”
“If Ms. Smythe found his lifestyle deviant—”
Our victim slashed his hand through the air. Then winced since he’d used his right arm.
Shouldn’t that be in a sling or something? Far be it for me to question the medical professionals. Maybe he’d refused it. He seemed like the type of guy who didn’t want to show weakness. Somehow, I sensed, with him in the green scrub shirt, he wasn’t as in control as he’d normally have liked.
“I don’t know if Meggibeth even figured out Cole, Michael, and Caressa are together. Cole only attended with Caressa. If he was making a statement, that was it.”
“Why do you think Meggibeth shot him? Shot you?” I hesitated. “Let me take a step back. What happened?”
We should’ve asked this question initially, but Mariah had started right in with the personal aspects.
Donovan pressed his left hand to his forehead. “I was talking with Cole and Julie about drink preferences. They do coffee while I prefer a spinach smoothie.”
Mariah made a small gagging sound.
I ignored her. “You were talking.”
“Yeah, I mean, Julie likes her sugar bomb, which I know isn’t good for her, but she works out and…
” He pressed his hand again to his forehead.
“You don’t need to know that.” He closed his eyes.
“Cole raised his cup—I assumed in salute—and I caught sight of Meggibeth. She pulled a gun and…” He cleared his throat and, after a moment, opened his eyes.
Our gazes locked.
“Everything happened so damn fast. She fired. At Cole. It happened in, like, the blink of an eye. That’s a saying, right?
Well, that’s how fast it happened. Cole went down, and I rushed her.
Meggibeth. She got off a shot before I tackled her to the ground.
I…she hit her head pretty hard. And the gun skittered away and—”
“She shot you.” Mariah tapped her finger again.
“Yeah.” He waved her off. “Like, a scratch.” He took in a deep breath.
“Then Larry and Tanya, our production assistant, were there, and they took over, and…I went to Cole. Julie was pinned beneath him, and then she rolled Cole onto his back.” His eyes turned bleak.
“There was so much blood. Like, I’ve seen wounds in my time—years in the business means things happen, right? But this…”
“What is it that you do on the show?” Again, another question I should’ve asked earlier.
“I’m the stunt coordinator for VJ. I’ve done other productions as well. If Cole’s got any kind of action sequence—be it a simple slap through to a fully orchestrated fancy routine—he asks for me. I owe him everything.”
“And he now owes you his life.” Mariah leaned back. “Pretty brave thing you did. Rushing a person holding a gun.”
“I didn’t…” He swallowed hard. “I did what I had to do. We had a full crew this morning—we had three big scenes to shoot. The plan was to knock them off as quickly as we could—given the cold temperature.”
“And you had a scene?”
“A kid was supposed to run into Cole. Ostensibly an accident, but the kid’s up to something.
I was there to ensure no one got hurt in the collision.
Definitely the easier part of my job. Later, Cole and I were scheduled to do some work in the studio.
He’s only just fully recovered from his injury. ” He winced.
Mariah waved him off. “We saw him on crutches in December. Although he wouldn’t specify the injury.”
“IT band.” Donovan shrugged.
“I’m sorry.” I made a note but wasn’t certain why.
“Cole injured his IT band. Usually, runners have that kind of injury, but he got knocked the wrong way and…yeah. So he’s just coming off that injury, and we planned to do some physical work today.”
“And Meggibeth would’ve known he was back today.” Likely a dumb question, but I needed to keep us focused.
“Yeah. He would’ve been on the call sheet.
And everyone’s been talking. I mean, he came back two weeks ago, but most of his scenes have been at a desk or lounging in bed or anything else that’d keep him off the leg.
He was pretty healed up, but we weren’t willing to risk reinjury.
Today was the first day we were on the street. ”
“And the first time you all had seen each other since the gala.”
He nodded.
“Is there anything else you can tell us? Did she say anything? Before you tackled her? Or after?” What am I missing?
He shook his head. “I can’t give you anything. She didn’t say why she decided to bring a gun to set today. We have security, but they don’t check the bags of the crew, and she’d have been one of the first people on set this morning. No…” Again with the forehead rubbing. “I’m clueless.”
“You’ve done great.” I had to reassure him.
Mariah shot me a sharp glance, but I ignored her.
I pulled out a card from my wallet and pushed it across the desk. “If you think of anything else…”
Donovan took it, leaned forward, and used his left hand to shove it into his back jeans pocket. “I don’t think I can. I never saw this coming.”
“And yet you’re not entirely surprised.” A guess on my part, but I was pretty good at reading people.
“Yeah, you’re right.” He shook his head, then clearly winced because of the movement.
Is he getting a headache? We better wrap this up.
He continued, “Meggibeth…always looked at Cole a certain way. You know, like puppy-dog eyes. Most of the cast and crew don’t anymore. I mean, the guy’s sexy as fuck—” Another wince. “Sorry.”
I waved him off. Neither Mariah nor I was going to argue that point.
“Sometimes new people on the set—extras or crew or cast—might take a second look, but he never encourages them. He’s just…
Cole. And he never encouraged Meggibeth.
Was he aware of her looking at him? Probably.
But he never said anything to me. But this…
” He shook his head. “If I’d thought anything like this was even a possibility, I would’ve said something.
After I steered her away from Cole on Saturday night, she said she had a headache and wanted to go home. I didn’t think anything of it.”
“Okay, well, thank you.”
Donovan met my gaze. “I didn’t do anything.”
“You did,” I assured him. “You gave us a strong timeline of this morning’s events as well as talking about Saturday night—that’s all incredibly helpful.” I rose.
“If you say so.” He rose as well.
“I do.”
Our gazes met once more.
My stomach did a little flip. I doubted he was checking me out.
With my plain-brown eyes and close-cropped steel-gray hair, I wasn’t anything to look at.
In fact, thanks to the hair, I looked older than I was.
My hair had turned gray when I was in my early twenties and had been the bane of my existence ever since.
Except I was too lazy to dye it or anything like that.
“I’ll try to remember more.” He held out his left hand.
I shook it. And probably lingered a moment or two longer on the solid grip with the callused fingers. “We appreciate it.”
Donovan nodded and headed out.
Mariah sighed. “This is getting us nowhere.”
“We still have Julie Reyes to speak to.” I doubted she’d offer up anything more substantive, but we had to try. “And we should see how Hamilton’s doing and when we might be able to talk to him.”
“Yeah. Shame about all this.” She pulled out her phone and started scrolling.
I reviewed my notes before heading out to ask Julie to speak to us.